Category Archives: Commentary

because this was not easy to find, i’m copying my 2.5-cents over here into my own space, with a link to the original thread. in light of recent events, i am probably too thankful, but in the interest of integrity, … Continue reading →

After several private discussions it seems important that I take some time to address the recent piece by Barbara Grant discussing Sashi and to a lesser extent, Kaya and Sadie, Suhaila and Judeo-Christian ethical standards as they apply to belly dance and as they are represented in the article. I’m going to try to head in the direction of making this a learning opportunity, but some of this may seem pretty personal. For that I apologize in advance.

Don’t be mean. We don’t have to be mean. -B.B.

This goes here and not on Gilded Serpent because there is just no way that the Gilded Serpent 500-word limit on letters is going to cover these thoughts, and neither is the 3-page limit on articles (I’m going to be lucky to come in at less than 5000 words). To even hope to keep this reasonable, I’m going to skip the whole second half of Ms. Grant’s article – perhaps I’ll come back to issues of burlesque and belly dance in the future. For now, focus is important, so I tackle only the first half.
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one of the reasons i enjoy working with dancers is that they are generally (!) genuinely good people. but in every population, there’s a “dark side” and in every population there’s the occasional oversight or mistake or “flash of stupidity.” i’ve certainly done my share of stupid things, but i try to “do right” by the dancers, particularly with the photography stuff, and i think i usually live up to that.

but there are exceptions. of course.

and so, since i have a soapbox to stand on, and since i had such interesting back-channel feedback from my essay-length rant on tribaldc.tribe.net (in here), i guess i’m on a bit of a roll with ranting. in this case, i thought i’d retreat to my personal corner of the web.

duplicity is not ok.

it’s not ok to ask me to do photos, and ask for a really fast (as in overnight) turnaround, with lots of heavy editing, and then just assume it was a “favor.” i do favors – probably too often. but if you wouldn’t drop everything you had planned tonight to come dance for me right now, as a favor, you shouldn’t expect me to drop everything i had planned to make you look good out of the generosity of my heart. it’s not that i wouldn’t – in fact, i have – but it’s the assumption that’s duplicitous.
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just a quick note to thank all the “foreign” pure dancers for stopping by dc and doing what they do…. i hope the city treated you well, and i hope you had a wonderful visit.

thanks to the local pure contingent for putting together a very busy weekend.

and congratulations to all of pure for expanding their ritual. Continue reading →